Poe's Quarrel with Boston Writers

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Hyperion: A Romance
New York: Samuel Colman, 1839

In his brief but negative review of this book, published in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine in October 1839, Poe wrote:

We grant ... [Longfellow] high qualities, but deny him the Future. In the present instance, without design, without shape, without beginning, middle, or end, what earthly object has his book accomplished? -- what definite impression has it left?

Boston Public Library, Rare Books & Manuscripts